“Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.” ~ Sholem Asch

Andrea informed me that we needed to do our Christmas letter. But the more we began to discuss it, the more difficult it was to come up with something to put in it. We’re in limbo; that time between when God told us we were going overseas, and when we actually go overseas. That valley time in between the mountaintops. That feeling like God has you on the slow boat, and the winds have died. It’s hard to describe your journey when it doesn’t really feel like you’re going anywhere. We were warned about this. Informed is probably a better word. No, on second thought, warned is right. We were warned because it’s easy to let yourself give up hope. 

“It’s time once again for the annual Christmas letter. Ever notice how it’s easier some years to write these than others? It’s kind of that way for us. In a very real way we have lots of news… in another very real way we have nothing new.”

“Our ‘really big news’ is something that is still a ways off on the horizon. For those who haven’t heard, we have gotten connected with a missionary organization known as Pioneers International. They have appointed us to join teams currently planting churches and working with street kids and human trafficking victims in northern Thailand. We’re targeting being in Thailand hopefully by next August. In the meantime, we’re preparing; getting ready to make a very exciting transition.” 

“Dave has had a bit of a career change. After twelve years pastoring, he took a sabbatical and is currently working at Sears – learning all there is to know about mattresses. Andrea is working as part of the transport team at Magic Valley Hospital. We’re also all helping out caring for refugee families being served by our church, and both boys are enjoying their kids and youth programs. We’re currently living in Twin Falls, Idaho.”

Part of that ‘not giving up hope’ is moving forward in spite of not feeling it as strongly. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).” Those words aren’t supposed to just encourage us with what we believe; they are to motivate us to keep going regardless of how we feel. They’re a reminder that, even though we might not sense it, God continues to move and walk beside us and make things happen. 

“I wish we had more to share about our future plans, and in the coming weeks and months you will probably hear more. For now, though, we’re enjoying a less stress-filled holiday season. It’s very refreshing. We’re hoping the same for you: that this season that used to be known for joy and peace might be known for that again; that in the midst of the pressure to give the perfect gift you might find that the perfect gift is you; and that you would know the ultimate love of the universe wrapped up as a baby born in a barn.”

“From all of us to all of you; a very merry Christmas.”

What a Long, Strange Trip – of Pretzels and Pathways

The path God has us on is like a pretzel. Sometimes it’s one of those straight ones, and sometimes it’s… well… it doesn’t seem so straight. But the path is always there. 

It’s been awhile since I submitted anything to the blog. That’s because I’ve been working. Retail. Seasonal at Sears. A whole new world. But I digress…

We successfully made our way down to Orlando. We met first with the shrink, who assured us that we were indeed crazy enough to make this life transition. We met with the financial people who let us know how much support we need to have raised in order to go. We met with the committee who – admittedly, rightly so – had concerns about our commitment level given the rapidity of our decision. They were swayed once they heard the whole story; it was clearly a God thing. And we met with the man in charge of church partnerships, who went to high school with the Senior Pastor of the church we have been attending. 

Largely because of that connection, we finally had a sending church. And, in another fine irony; it turns out that the church – unbeknownst to us – already has a Thailand connection. They sponsor an orphanage about three hours from the city where we’re expecting to be. 

We returned to Twin Falls… and we were still without work. Both of us. We entered limbo (more on that topic in an upcoming blog). Our target time for leaving for Thailand is next August. But we began to wonder what it was that God was going to do to get us to then. More applications, and more turn downs. Then… Sears. 

This is unlike anything I’ve ever done (well… I did sell Scout-o-Rama tickets door to door when I was eleven…). My birthday present to my wife was the first shift I was scheduled. She began working the next day doing transport for the hospital. 

For the time being – besides working where we are – we’re beginning our preparations for a move to a vastly different culture half a world away. Making our way along the circuitous route that God has laid out before us. A long, strange trip indeed.

Culture Shock

Sometimes I just don’t understand people.

We live in a duplex. Last evening, it was a little chilly out. Our neighbor decided to build a fire. An open pit flame. In the carport. The wood carport that we share. The wood carport attached to our house and covering our cars. Flames shooting into the air higher than he is tall. Sparks flying. As we were leaving the house to head off to our evening plans, I heard him yell into his part of the house, “Hey, are you bringing me another beer?”

No possible way this could end badly, huh? 

Thankfully, it didn’t end badly… at least not as badly as it could have. He didn’t burn the building down, but our living room smells a bit like a campfire. Things that make you go “hmmm”. 

Maybe this isn’t unusual, I don’t know. I would never think of building a small bonfire in my carport. To me, that seems asinine. To our neighbor, it was apparently perfectly normal. I have no idea what the purpose was for his building a fire; if he was cooking or if he was simply nostalgic for a few bars of “Kum Ba Yah”. 

Culture Shock? Maybe. Or maybe just plain old shock. 

If all goes according to plan, in the none-too-distant future our family will be joining another vastly different culture. We have much to learn in preparation for our transition. There will be a lot of norms that will seem peculiar to us. And, no matter how hard we try, we will do things that will seem peculiar to the folks we will be encountering. Ideally, we’ll all learn from each other and laugh a little together about our gaffes. And maybe we’ll come away better as a result.

Hopefully, though, neither of us will try to burn the house down.

In a… general… that-a-way… direction

Everyone thinks Jack Sparrow’s compass is broken. It doesn’t point north. 

At one point, Jack instructs his crew to set sail “in a… general… that-a-way… direction”. When the crew asks for something a little more definite, Captain Jack responds: “I have every faith in your reconciliatory navigational skills”. And so they set off, albeit with a bit of uncertainty. They’re guardedly optimistic that he’ll lead them safely to their goal, because he’s never let them down before. And so off they go, “in a… general… that-a-way… direction”.

More often than not, that’s how God works. God gives us a heading, “in a… general… that-a-way… direction”. We’d like something clearer, but God just smiles, because he has every faith in our reconciliatory navigational skills. But off we go, perhaps with our own bit of uncertainty, counting on the fact that God has never let us down before. 

Now, back to the compass. It’s not really broken, you know. Just because it doesn’t point north, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. It is actually quite precise. It points to what the bearer wants most. 

God provides us much the same kind of compass. It doesn’t always point where we think it should. But it points exactly where he wants it to. Admittedly, it doesn’t chart the course for us. It doesn’t tell us what conditions we will encounter. It doesn’t tell us if we’ll have to alter our course at some point and then recalculate. But then, neither does any other compass. 

With an ordinary compass, you have to make estimates. You make educated guesses as to where you will find the true destination. Not so with Jack’s compass. Not so with God’s compass. If we’re sailing faithful to God, our compass will take us exactly where we want to go and exactly where God wants us to end up. 

We’re heading off, in a general that-a-way direction, with a compass that only points us to God’s intended destination.

What a Long, Strange Trip – Revenge of the Résumé

The whole “camp pastor” thing was amazingly cathartic. 

Not quite a week later we scheduled a meeting to sit down with one of our pastors. After telling him our story, he said that perhaps – and “maybe I’m wrong, but…” – we had been brought to Twin Falls and then to a failed job because we were still supposed to be in ministry, just not that ministry anymore. A different kind of ministry. Knowing how God works sometimes, that seemed reasonable. And so a new batch of résumés went out over cyberspace.

I became active with a couple of Christian job placement sites, headhunters for church work. At the final count, I had sent out 46 résumés. Number 46 was the one that landed a response. It was to an international church in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 

“Honey… what do you think about living in Thailand?” The church website told us that they were looking for both a Senior Pastor and a Youth Pastor. I decided to put in for both. It was around 4:00 in the afternoon on a Friday.

“Wouldn’t it be cool,” I said, “if they got back to us so that we could mention it to the pastor.” Andrea reminded me that it was around 5:00 Saturday morning in Thailand. “They’re probably not going to even get the email until Monday.” I knew this, but still thought it would be cool. That evening, at around 10:00, I saw that I had an email. It was from Chiang Mai. They wanted more information. We emailed back and forth for a week or so, and the church told us that we needed to be connected to a Mission Organization. Andrea’s folks had been with one that merged with Pioneers, so we contacted them. 

Pioneers arranged a Skype interview with us, and we passed. We were told that we needed to attend an Orientation in Orlando, either in October or January. Since we wanted to really see if this was the direction God wanted to send us, we settled on the October session. With paying for the training itself and airfare, we were looking at around $2000. Did I mention that we were both still unemployed? Within five days, we had all but $70. We were on our way.

Wrong Kind of Oops

One night a man had a dream… oh wait… that’s already been used. Sorry.

I did have a dream the other night, one of those right-before-you-wake-up dreams. I was talking with three people about our Thailand plans. All I remember about the conversation was that one of them said, “That’s the wrong kind of oops”. Weird, huh? And all three of the people I was dream-talking with were folks that have pledged support.

When I was more awake (read: second cup of coffee), I began to ponder what “wrong kind of oops” meant. I don’t get the sense that I was being warned that we shouldn’t do this, or that we should somehow try to talk ourselves out of going overseas. I don’t think that’s what this is about at all. But I did come up with an idea for what “wrong kind of oops” is supposed to mean. 

Here in the States, if a job doesn’t fit right, you can very easily move on to something new. Chalk it up to being an “oops”. Learn from your mistakes. Even in ministry, you can move on to something new pretty quickly. But not when you go overseas. There is no room for oops. You can’t just pack up and move back. You’re there for a commitment of time. You have to figure out how to make things work. You live by creativity and flexibility and adaptability. 

Hopefully, in a little over nine months, we will be relocating to Southeast Asia. Physically and culturally, it’s on the other side of the world. We’re going to have a steep learning curve, and we’re going to make a lot of mistakes. We’re going to wonder if we’ve made the ultimate oops. But we have made a commitment, and we’re not expecting to break it. And here’s where we depend on our friends and family. We need to know you’re praying for us and thinking of us, because that’s what is going to get us through. 

You can feel free to begin now…

What a Long, Strange Trip - Out in the Rain

"Clearly, you've never been to Singapore." It sounded almost like a challenge. So I began to familiarize with Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia. I decided it wouldn't be a bad place to live. In elementary school I had kind of had a fascination with Chinese and Japanese culture, but it had long since waned. It was fun to pick it back up in a way. But I hadn’t mentioned anything to anyone at that point.

 I was still sending out résumés all over. My wife suggested that maybe we look at moving to Colorado Springs. I said it wasn’t far enough away.

Meanwhile, there is a pretty good Mongolian Barbecue in Twin Falls. Go figure. A couple of weeks after Jack Sparrow’s observation we went out as a family to eat there. Now, Asian food has never really been a favorite of my wife. When we got home she reminded me of that, but said that this time she had really enjoyed it. She said she had been thinking about the whole “not far enough away” thing. As she ate, she was thinking that she could eat Asian food every day. And then: “I could even love some place like Singapore.”

I had a couple of interviews set up, but none of them panned out. Then I went to fulfill my final obligation to the United Methodist Church. I went to be a one-day Camp Pastor for the Senior High camp at Sawtooth. I did not feel like going. It is a two-hour journey from Twin Falls to Sawtooth. The entire length of the trip, I was asking myself why I hadn’t found some way t get out of it. I was not in an emotional space to want to go. But I did.

When I arrived, I was greeted by many hugs. It was healing. Then they began the first activity of the morning. It was Rob Bell’s “Nooma” video, Rain. It tells the story of Rob out walking, with his one-year-old son in a backpack. As they are, walking it begins to rain. Hard. Thunder, lightning, the whole thing. Rob’s son begins crying, then screaming in terror. Rob just keeps on walking, oblivious; he wants to get home. But after a mile or so, Rob stops and takes his son out of the backpack, and just hugs him close. Trying to comfort him. It was an amazing moment for me.

It was at that moment that I felt like God had taken me out of the backpack. I was riding along on God’s back, with the rain and thunder and lightning all around me, and I felt like God was oblivious. But finally, God had stopped. He was holding me close, whispering that he knew the way home. Everything was going to be alright. And I believed it. I still do.

We had left a guaranteed job, following what we thought was God’s leading. Then, what we thought God was leading us into evaporated. We felt abandoned. We were in the middle of a storm. And we felt God wasn’t listening. Now, finally, we knew that God was listening after all.

"Bring me that horizon!"

When I was in Bible College, there were four "tracks" of study that you could take: Music Ministry, Youth Ministry, Pastoral Ministry, and Missions. For me, at the time, it was Youth Ministry or Music Ministry. I was okay with Pastoral Ministry. Missions: "I'm good, thanks." I had no overwhelming desire to leave my nice, comfortable, American life and go off to live in the bush, eating bugs and translating the Bible into obscure languages that I didn't even know. I had heard numerous horror stories about being a missionary; wearing second or third hand clothes sent from the states, getting all kinds of shots to avoid obscure diseases, receiving used and dried out tea bags sent in care packages by little old ladies, being killed. None of that was appealing to me.

My wife is an MK (Missionary Kid). A part of her has always wanted to go back overseas. Every once in awhile she would suggest that in some form like being houseparents at a mission school or a pastor to expats. I would usually graciously smile and ignore the whole conversation.

I never set out to be a Missionary. But when you finally decide to stop steering the boat yourself and just put up the sail and let the Wind take you where it's going to... it is amazing where the Holy Spirit will end up blowing you. For us, right now the boat seems to be heading on a course for Thailand.

At the end of Pirates... Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack says, "Bring me that horizon". Maybe he's running from something, maybe he's running to something. Maybe he just knows that he's supposed to be over there... wherever "there" is. The thing is; with the horizon, you don't always know what you'll find once you're there. Heading off to the horizon is an ultimate act of faith. But, perhaps more important; the horizon isn't a destination. It's always out there ahead of you. It's a never-ending journey. It's not a single step of faith, it's a life of faith.

Right now, faith has us in the boat heading for Thailand. There is lots to do in preparation. But, like Captain Jack Sparrow, we know that's where we're supposed to be.

Bring me that horizon!

What a Long, Strange Trip - the saga begins

In December of 2010, after much discussion and prayer, my wife and I decided that it was time to leave the pulpit of the United Methodist Church. I was a Licensed Local Pastor seeking ordination, but - for whatever reason - that wasn't happening. I had been in contact with the Department of Juvenile Corrections and the Twin Falls Juvenile Court, hoping to partner with them on a grant to facilitate and coordinate Restorative Justice conferences. I made the announcement in January of 2011, and began preparing for this transition. 

June of 2011 was my last official month in the UMC. As the first weeks of July came to an end, we sat down expectantly waiting for the latest news on the grant-writing process. It was revealed that the grant I had hoped for had gone to someone else. I was unemployed. I began plastering the country with my resume, sending out around twenty all across the United States. I had resumes in five time zones; every one but Alaska. And I heard nothing. 

The very same evening that I learned about the loss of the grant, the whole family was watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. At one point, Captain Jack Sparrow says, "Clearly, you've never been to Singapore". I thought to myself, "Heh, neither have I". And so, Southeast Asia entered my consciousness.

New adventure

My wife and I have recently been appointed to be missionaries to Thailand. We're beginning the preparation process. This blog is designed to be a running commentary on the milestones of this process, and the hand of God at work in spite of us.